Mary Jeffreys Lewis (abt. â€") known professionally as Jeffreys Lewis
was a British-born American actress whose career lasted long after her
popularity as a leading lady had faded.Mary Jeffreys Lewis was born in
London, England, on October to Irish parents of Welsh descent. Some
sources give her birth year as or later, though if correct, early US
census indicate she was most likely born around . Lewis attended
elocution classes at the Birkbeck Institute (now Birkbeck, University
of London) and made her first stage appearance at the Theatre Royal in
Edinburgh, Scotland. She was brought to America in , probably with her
mother, May, and sisters, Catherine and Constance, with veteran
British actor Thomas C. King to perform on the New York stage. Her
Broadway debut came on the September , at the New Lyceum Theatre on
th Street and th Ave., playing Esmeralda opposite King's Quasimodo in
Notre Dame, a failed dramatic adaption of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback
of Notre-Dame.Lewis’ work in Notre Dame caught the eye of John
Lester Wallack and before year’s end she was playing Miss Grantham
in Samuel Foote’s comedy The Liar at Wallack's Theatre on Broom
Street and Broadway. Lewis stayed with Wallack for a season appearing
in The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Central Park, by John
Lester Wallack, The Veteran, The School by T. W. Robertson, The
Shaughraun by Dion Boucicault and Rafael, an adaptation of the French
play Les Filles de Marbres by Théodore Barrière.The following few
seasons were spent with Augustin Daly’s company and as a stock
player at the Broadway Theatre on Broadway and th Street before
touring the West with Daly's company and finding success in
California. In the mid-s she embarked on a tour of Australia and
possibly New Zealand for a seasons or two. Upon her return she gained
popularity appearing in big cities and small as Beatrice in La Belle
Russe an adaptation of a story by May Agnes Fleming, Martha Moulton in
Forget-Me-Not by Herman Merivale, the Countess Clothilde in Clothilde,
an adaption of a play by Victorien Sardou, the Countess Zieka in
Diplomacy by Victorien Sardou and as Muriel in The Sporting Duchess by
Sir Augustus Harris, Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton.
was a British-born American actress whose career lasted long after her
popularity as a leading lady had faded.Mary Jeffreys Lewis was born in
London, England, on October to Irish parents of Welsh descent. Some
sources give her birth year as or later, though if correct, early US
census indicate she was most likely born around . Lewis attended
elocution classes at the Birkbeck Institute (now Birkbeck, University
of London) and made her first stage appearance at the Theatre Royal in
Edinburgh, Scotland. She was brought to America in , probably with her
mother, May, and sisters, Catherine and Constance, with veteran
British actor Thomas C. King to perform on the New York stage. Her
Broadway debut came on the September , at the New Lyceum Theatre on
th Street and th Ave., playing Esmeralda opposite King's Quasimodo in
Notre Dame, a failed dramatic adaption of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback
of Notre-Dame.Lewis’ work in Notre Dame caught the eye of John
Lester Wallack and before year’s end she was playing Miss Grantham
in Samuel Foote’s comedy The Liar at Wallack's Theatre on Broom
Street and Broadway. Lewis stayed with Wallack for a season appearing
in The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Central Park, by John
Lester Wallack, The Veteran, The School by T. W. Robertson, The
Shaughraun by Dion Boucicault and Rafael, an adaptation of the French
play Les Filles de Marbres by Théodore Barrière.The following few
seasons were spent with Augustin Daly’s company and as a stock
player at the Broadway Theatre on Broadway and th Street before
touring the West with Daly's company and finding success in
California. In the mid-s she embarked on a tour of Australia and
possibly New Zealand for a seasons or two. Upon her return she gained
popularity appearing in big cities and small as Beatrice in La Belle
Russe an adaptation of a story by May Agnes Fleming, Martha Moulton in
Forget-Me-Not by Herman Merivale, the Countess Clothilde in Clothilde,
an adaption of a play by Victorien Sardou, the Countess Zieka in
Diplomacy by Victorien Sardou and as Muriel in The Sporting Duchess by
Sir Augustus Harris, Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton.
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